Anyone try The Every-Other-Day Diet

I'll skip... 50p cals a day... fml...

If you’re trying to lose weight, to me at least, it seems far more sustainable to just be in a daily 500 calorie deficit throughout the week rather than a 1500-2000 calorie (dependent on BMR etc) for 3 days out of seven. A diet which champions ‘eating whatever you want’ for 57.143% percent of the time without accounting for over all calories runs the risk of not actually being in a caloric deficit over any set period of time. It only works if you are eating up to or below your maintenance calories on your ‘normal days’!.

The maths are relatively simple, so there is no need to partake in what is essentially ‘Dietary Gambling’

Good luck regardless

sijomial wrote: »

I heard of her when she had her fallout with Michael Mosley for taking her research out of context.
She is a serious researcher and unlike many other jumping on the IF bandwagon is actually qualified in her subject.

In the end OP the only way to find out if it works for you is to try it.
5:2 worked for me (I simply found it a less hard way to achieve a sensible weekly deficit) but for many they absolutely hate it.

Whether you would overeat enough on the non-fasting days to cancel out such a substantial deficit is also going to be personal but her research showed it generally wasn't the case. But even if 80% (guess!) achieve a sustainable deficit this way that would be irrelevant to you if you happened to be one of the 20%.

That was my experience as well, after the first couple weeks I naturally dialed back my non-fasting days, without even trying. I hung out with small group of women who were all doing the plan and most of us didn't even track on our non-fasting days, we ate as we wanted and stopped when we felt full. We all lost significant amounts of weight, mostly just focusing our attention on our fasting days.

The plan is definitely not for everyone, or even most people, but it worked well for me.

I’ve done the 5:2 diet at times with success. As mentioned above, for me it was a tool to create a calorie deficit. I counted my calories on maintenance days and on the 500 calorie days. I’m a bit skeptical of all the health benefits of fasting, but if they exist that’s a bonus I suppose.

I’ve wanted to try the every other day diet, but the math creates too steep of a deficit for me. My maintenance calories are around 2000 calories and the ‘every other day diet’ would average out to 1250 calories per day over the course of two weeks. Contrast that with 1571 on the 5:2. That’s a cut of 37.5% of my TDEE vs a more reasonable 21% of my TDEE. Perhaps if I didn’t count calories on the maintenance calorie days it wouldn’t be as steep of a deficit and it would feel more reasonable, but then I figure what’s the point. What I liked about 5:2 is that on the maintenance days, I was ‘training’ myself for what maintenance should be, an aspect I really enjoyed.

I could also see the upside of not counting calories on the up days/high days/5 days, but it would drive me nuts not knowing where my weight loss should be in terms of numbers. To each their own.

My advice if to try anything! Within two weeks you’ll know whether it’s right for you or not. If you decide not to count calories on the days you get to eat more, your bathroom scale will let you know if it’s working for weight loss.

I've been doing my own version of One Meal a Day. I put sugar free cream in my coffee so I'm technically not fasting. But I really hate black coffee. I've been losing kind of slowly but it's consistent. This is something that is actually do-able forever....for me. I'm at a calorie deficit but it allows me to eat a good meal and drink my wine. You have to find what will work for you. I know I'm not going to stop drinking wine, I will never drink black coffee, and I don't want to feel guilty if I eat 2-3 slices of pizza. People tend to eliminate everything, lose weight, and then wonder why they gained it back when they re-introduce those items to their diet.